USGS Takes To The Sky To Learn More About New Madrid Seismic Zone

Hear the report by Jacob McCleland of KRCU in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

The area being mapped by the low-flying USGS plane.

Credit U.S. Geological Survey

The U.S. Geological Survey is taking to the sky this week with a low-flying airplane that will map the subsurface of the New Madrid Seismic Zone.

The plane will collect aeromagnetic data in parts of Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee.

The flights are part of a larger USGS study to pinpoint and map undiscovered faults in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.

“There’s a fair amount of seismicity on certain faults within the New Madrid Seismic Zone,” said Seismologist Oliver Boyd, "but there are probably other faults within the New Madrid Seismic Zone that we don’t know anything about, that we’ve never been able to image. This information will help us be able to image those faults and maybe provide some constraints on when earthquakes have occurred on those faults.”

Boyd, who is based in Memphis, said the study will provide more information about the region’s seismic history and how often earthquakes can occur.

“The aeromagnetic data will tell us about the magnetic properties of the rocks in about the upper several thousand feet of the crust to the surface. That will tell us something about faults, potential faults and other features that may tell us about the earthquake hazard,” Boyd said.

The plane is covering 1,800 square miles and flying at an elevation of 650 feet.

The region saw major earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, and continues to be an active seismic zone.